[ Peter Carroll’s visit to Perry, Iowa gives no warning of
sudden violence that occurred there this week, except for feelings of
despair that might afflict a troubled young man with nowhere to go. ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

IOWA REQUIEM, 2018  
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Peter Neil Carroll

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_ Peter Carroll’s visit to Perry, Iowa gives no warning of sudden
violence that occurred there this week, except for feelings of despair
that might afflict a troubled young man with nowhere to go. _

,

 

Iowa Requiem, 2018

By Peter Neil Carroll

                                   
_I dream from one absence to another_—Pablo Neruda

Perry, Iowa, a dot on the map, struggles to survive,

its murals honor those earnest

small-town fixtures, lived before they died.

_Charles Joy, “Such, such were the joys”_

At town’s edge, cornfields crawl to the last

ramshackle shacks, open horizons swerve

full circle, from planet’s rim to starry abyss.

_Fred Malick, Postman, walked 21 miles a day._

In liminal light, flatlands crackle in unbroken

wind before tense settlers chose sycamore  

to shadow the bare sun, hug icy-white nights.

_Virginia Green, “My favorite hobby is people.”_

Early spring, low hills still shine lime green,

earth mineral-rich black, unnatured, Big Ag

grows on Big Gov cash, wind all-electric.

_“Have you taken your disposition pill today?” _

_ Horace Lewis, Religious leader_

Two billboards corrupt the view—each targets

women (_Varicose Veins_) (_The Choice that Kills_).

What’s the point?  No one is here to read them.

_Bette Mae Harris, Dancer, “Talk of the Town”_

As river floods or drought push folks from the land

onto city lots, the merchants plot, install red-brick shops,

a grand hotel, churches, schools, the Carnegie shelves.

_John Turner, Teacher             “He made me want to
learn”_

Gone, the family farm. Gone the farmer, his wife also

gone. Even the black night, silence of stars, killed

by cherry-red lights blossomed on whining windmills.

_Cornelia Bulkley, “They always pick on me.”_

Peter Neil Carroll has written poetry about midwestern towns in
several collections, most recently in This Land, These People, the 50
States (2022) which won the Prize Americana from the Institute for the
Study of Popular Culture. 

* Poetry
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* Midwest culture
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* Iowa
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